Monthly Archives: July 2015

Irish Catholic leaders have praised the large turnout at the weekend Rally for Life, saying that it should give the Irish Government and civic leaders reason to pause before any attempt to relax Irish abortion laws. It was estimated that as many as 25,000 pro-life rally campaigners marched through the centre of Dublin on Saturday…Read More (PDF)

The “climate change pope” Pope Francis also known as the “pope of the poor” returned to Spanish-speaking South America for the first time as pontiff yesterday, stressing the importance of protecting the needy and the environment from exploitation and – in a nation whose president was booed as his vehicle followed the papal motorcade – to foster dialogue among all sectors of society. The environmental message – from a pope who last month issued a treatise staking the Earth’s preservation as a core mission – is particularly relevant for Ecuador, a Pacific nation that is home to one of the world’s most species-diverse ecosystems but is also an OPEC country heavily dependent on oil. High crude prices allowed Mr Correa to lift 1.3 million people out of poverty in his eight years in office…Read More (PDF)

The recent Pope Francis Encyclical on the environment and climate change is now available from the Abbey Bookshop in Limerick and at the Abbey Bookshop website. The controversial encyclical is openly critical of much of our modern throwaway lifestyle which shows little or no regard for poor people or the planet. In the Pope Francis Encyclical, the Pope highlights how the degree of human intervention in the environment, mostly in the service of business and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and less beautiful, ever more limited and grey, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound limitlessly. In the Popes words “each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, from construction and demolition sites, from clinical, electronic and industrial sources. The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, older people lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish”…Read More

Catholic bishops’ spokesman on migration, Bishop John Kirby has called on the Irish Government to take more of the Mediterranean migrants rescued from the sea off the coast of Italy. Speaking to the Irish Independent following the launch of a new book on the work of the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy in Britain, Bishop John Kirby praised the role of the LÉ Eithne in saving thousands of Mediterranean migrants over the past month…Read More (PDF)